<p>Can somebody recommend a good bank in Blacksburg area?</p>
<p>We are looking for a checking account with
* No minimum balance
* No monthly fees
* Free online bill pay
* On-campus ATM location</p>
<p>any bank is ok. Just go for student account. They have min balance but VERY LOW for students. According to the website, there are many banks on campus, including Suntrust.</p>
<p>When our S was a freshman, he opened a student account with SunTrust, which offered free checking and no minimum balance. The bank had a branch on Washington Street (in addition to ATMs on campus), which was convenient to many of the resident halls. All was good for the first 2 to 3 months. About November, SunTrust advised us that they could no longer offer free checking to students because of the costs that they were incurring. Surely, they had a very good idea of those expenses in August when they were encouraging the new Freshman class to open accounts with them. </p>
<p>We closed the account with SunTrust and have not regretted it. Fortunately, we had opened a second account with USAA at the same time as the SunTrust account. We opened the second account so we could have redundancy. USAA has been wonderful to my S. He primarily uses his debit card (versus writing checks). It’s very easy for us to add funding - we do it from our home computer in a matter of minutes and the funds are in his account immediately. Also, as long as your son is a teenager, he qualifies for a teen debit card which means that, even if his balance is low or zero, he will be able to use his debit card for essential purchases. Your S can have both a teen debit card and a checking account debit card which provides redundancy. USAA posts all his transactions and identifies them by food, automotive, etc., making it very easy to review the spending profile. </p>
<p>@GradandMom, don’t you have to be military to qualify for USAA account?</p>
<p>There is Wells Fargo branch in Blacksburd with ATMs on campus. They have no fee student accounts:</p>
<p><a href=“Everyday Checking Account | Wells Fargo(link”>Everyday Checking Account | Wells Fargo(link</a> is external)
Monthly service fee
Monthly service fee waived when linked to your participating school’s official campus ID card. Otherwise, a $3 monthly service fee will be applied.</p>
<p>Did anyone on this beard had any bad experience with Wells Fargo?</p>
<p>My son is a Senior and has yet to open a “local” bank account.</p>
<p>I am a student in Blacksburg and I am from out of state. I switched banks for the ease of being able to bank in Blacksburg and my hometown as well. That is why I chose Wells Fargo. You can pretty much find them anywhere and they do have student accounts. As long as you don’t overdraw the account or go over the maximum number of transfers, you won’t experience any fees.</p>
<p>We haven’t used a local account either but sons 1 and 2 have accounts at banks that allow a certain number of fee free withdrawals at other banks.</p>
<p>I asked several students when I visited campus this past spring, and the answers were mainly to go with Bank of America or Wells Fargo since those banks have ATM machines on campus if needed. Both had student accounts that were nearly no cost.</p>
<p>I think this is a great subject, but I am surprised that nobody mentioned Freedom First Credit Union. Credit Unions are a great option for avoiding fees, and they have ATMs on campus: </p>
<p>Freedom First Credit Union*
• Dietrick Dining Hall
• G. Burke Johnston Student Center
• University Bookstore
• Volume II Bookstore in the University Mall </p>